July 30th, 2007
Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:07 am
Worthwhile? Microsofts next version of its small-business/home
productivity suite, due imminently, will be free and
ad-funded.
Microsoft Works 9.0 which will be the new products name, if
Microsoft opts to stick with its current nomenclature might also
debut at some point as Microsoft-hosted low-end productivity
service, as many have been speculating. A hosted version of Works
would give Microsoft a head-to-head competitor with Google Docs
& Spreadsheets and other consumer- and small-business focused
services, analysts have said.
For the time being, however, the new version of Works will be
ad-funded, according to Satya Nadella, the newly minted Corporate
Vice President of Microsofts Search & Advertising Platform
Group. Nadella told me during an interview on July 27 that
Microsoft recently released the new ad-funded version of Microsoft
Works.
If Works 9.0 is out, I havent found it yet other than a couple
download links on torrents and other sharing sites. Anyone else
seen it?
(Ive asked Microsoft for more information on the new ad-funded
Works suite. No word back yet. Update: Even though Microsofts own
vice president discussed the product, no one will talk. The
official comment, via a Microsoft spokeswoman: Were always
looking at innovative ways to provide the best productivity tools
to our customers, but have nothing to announce at this
time.)
Nadella added that Works will be just the first of the ad-funded
software we are going to do. When I asked for other examples of
products might decide to make free and ad-funded, he mentioned
Office Accounting Express a product which is currently available
as both a free download and as a component of certain Office Live
paid subscriptions. He also said software downloads/shareware was
another category ripe with products that could be free and
ad-funded.
The decision to make Works ad-funded is not coming out of the
blue.
Microsoft Works 8.0, which Microsoft introduced in 2004, sells for
$49.95. It introduced the 8.5 OEM update to Works in 2006.
Microsoft Works includes an address book, calendar, database,
dictionary, PowerPointî Viewer, basic Word, and templates.
Traditionally, a number of PC makers have preloaded the Works
product on low-end PCs. But with its Office Ready PC program,
Microsoft has begun pushing PC makers to preload higher-margin
Microsoft Office rather than the cheaper Microsoft Works, on new
machines.
In his October 2005 Internet Services Disruption memo, Chief
Software Architect Ray Ozzie noted that (p)roducts must now
embrace a discover, learn, try, buy, recommend cycle sometimes
with one of those phases being free, another ad-supported, and yet
another being subscription-based. He added: Groups should
consider how new delivery and adoption models might impact plans,
and whether embracing new advertising-supported revenue models
might be market-relevant.
Even before Ozzie outlined his marching orders, Microsoft was
mulling an ad-funded version of Works. According to a document seen
by News.com in 2005, Microsoft was already running the numbers on
what it would take to do an ad-funded version of its low-end suite.
According to that report:
If ad revenues exceed 67 cents per year, we could actually give
Works away and still make more money, two Microsoft researchers
and one person from MSN stated in a paper presented to Chairman
Bill Gates at a Thinkweek brainstorming session earlier this
year.
Do you think a free, ad-funded version of Microsoft Works even if
its not a service will help Microsoft fight off Google and
other Web-based productivity suite vendors? Do you still expect
Microsoft to release a non-ad-funded, paid version of Works as a
subscription service at some point?